Crafts, DIY, and Quirk

Get it Together Closet

So when we were moving from a small studio to a two bedroom we were faced with a lot more space than we were used to. So we didn’t bother throwing things out when packing. We were only moving down the street and we just wanted to get it done. Everything went into boxes and when it came to unpacking, I quickly figured out that we were going to have a junk closet. We didn’t even unpack a lot of the boxes. We just threw them into the closest. Then when we couldn’t cram anything else in there we started putting excess into John’s closet.

Fast forward to now. When we got the apartment, I elected to take the hallway closet. It had a lot of shelving and a decent amount of hanging space and I thought I could really make it work.

Well, blog friends I have a lot of clothes and shoes. Soon that hallway closet wasn’t enough. My closet would be full and I had laundry baskets full of clean clothes with no place to go. So I asked John very nicely if we could switch closets (his is a little bigger), but he asked me where all the extra junk that we were storing in his closet was going to go. The hallway closet would be the perfect size for all his clothes, but would not accommodate the extra stuff that just accumulates in my apartment.

It was time. I moved to organize and consolidate the junk closet.

Now I’m new to blogging and I didn’t realize how post-worthy this little adventure was until I was finished so I don’t have before pictures of the closet.

The first thing we needed to tackle in the closet situation was the fact that there was no light. Well, there was a light but it was unreachable. When my last neighbors took their doors they also took the pull strings for a bunch of the lights in the place too. So kind.

So we eventually after much consideration, moved the pull cord from the bedroom into the closet, and I made a new pull cord for the bedroom from some heavy duty thin rope.

Then I saw what we were working with.

A bunch of junk.

We started to make piles.

Things to keep. Things to sell. Things to return to their owners. Things to throw out.

Spoiler Alert: we didn’t keep a lot.

The things I learned from this:

Take the time when you’re moving to really evaluate what you need and don’t need. To some extent we all hoard things. Don’t be afraid to throw things out. And if you have multiples of things like say 20 Ethernet cords figure out how many is appropriate to keep, discard the broken ones and give the others away.

I was shocked at how many things I ‘borrowed’ from my mom or John’s mom that we never used. Exercise equipment, vacuums (neither of the two we borrowed worked for our space), routers, etc.
We gave it all back. It was taking up precious space. And we weren’t using it.

Consolidating is your friend. I was able to get Christmas down to 2 boxes and a tree box.

Throwing stuff away feels good. I didn’t feel bad about it like I did when we were moving. I hadn’t looked at these things in 8 months.

We can actually sell some of these things. John has welders tools that he’s never going to use again, but he can sell them used to someone else who is taking a welding class in Jax.

We were so inspired we got everything out of John’s closet that wasn’t clothes AND organized our tool cabinet and hallway medicine/towel cabinet.

So that brings me to our project for next weekend.

Ikea and I will meet again. Hopefully this time I won’t sit crying in the sofa section like last time… (I told you that place is overwhelming)

We are going to get some RAST dressers and give em the ole IKEA hack. The dressers will be the last piece before I transfer closets. I should then FINALLY have space for everything and John will get a new set of drawers too.

I’m so excited to share the whole process with you. Sorry if this post was too long about organizing but I’m just so excited to have found space in my apartment for things.